Attackers shoot journalist in Somalia

New York, September 15, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Wednesday evening
shooting of a Somali radio journalist in the semi-autonomous region of
Puntland, and calls on the government to immediately take steps to bring the
perpetrators to justice.

Unknown
gunmen shot 20-year-old radio journalist Horriyo Abdulkadir Sheik Ali four times on
Wednesday evening as she left her office at Radio Galkayo, the state
broadcaster in the Garsoor neighborhood of Galkayo, local journalists told CPJ.
She was hospitalized in stable condition with wounds to the stomach, chest, and
right hand, news
reports said.

"We are disturbed by
the shooting of Horriyo Abdulkadir Sheik Ali and hope for her speedy recovery," said CPJ
East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes.
"Puntland authorities must double their efforts to seek the perpetrators of
this act and ensure journalists are allowed to report on the current conflict
without fear of reprisal."

Abdulkadir
was the news editor, producer, and presenter for Radio Galkayo and a
correspondent for the Mogadishu-based Radio Risaale. Abdallah Ahmed, her
colleague at Radio Risaale, said she had complained of repeated threats by
unknown callers over her coverage of the conflict between government troops and
militias led by Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom. According to local journalists,
several Puntland-based reporters have faced phone threats by unknown callers
over their coverage of the conflict.

Abdulkadir was taken
to the private Galkayo Medical Centre, where she remained unconscious but in a
stabilized condition after surgery on Wednesday night, local journalists told
CPJ. Staff members at Radio Risaale organized a fundraiser to help her with her
medical bills, local journalists said.

Abdulkadir reported
on the ongoing conflict in Galkayo, particularly focusing on the plight of
defenseless civilians caught in the middle of the conflict, Ahmed told CPJ.

Last month, a
remotely detonated bomb blew up the main doorway of the private station Radio
Daljir in Galkayo, local journalists told
CPJ. In August last year, authorities imprisoned the deputy director of
Horseed FM, Abdifatah Jama, for two months for allowing an interview
with an Islamic rebel leader. Jama was released by presidential pardon in
October.